July 21, 1898.] 



FOREST AND STREAM-. 



63 



age hotel, said that we were the first party who had 

 taken such a string of fish there, on rod and line, in 20 

 years. "We never go to the river to fl^h," said he. 

 *'Sametimes we go spearing there, or take a net and catch 

 a lot of "em, but no one fishes much with bait there." 

 Still another citizen assured us that the spearing for 

 small-mouth bass was beltpr in the creek below the mill. 



I noticed one singular thing in fishing for these bass, 

 which mates me think the hook does not hurt a bass 

 very much. I was directly abov^o one old fellow when 

 he sucked in the dragon fly, away down deep in the 

 water, I struck him, and. as I learned later, drove the 

 keen sproat clear up through the hard roof of his mouth. 

 The bass did not seem to mind it much, but flirted his tail 

 and made slowly off, sculling gently up toward a bank of 

 weeds and grass above the bridge. Of course here I put 

 strain on him, and soon as he felt the lift of the rod he 

 changed at once and became a regular demon. I do not 

 think a fish hooked in the mouth feels so much pain as it 

 does anger. Immediately after its anger oomes fear, 

 sooner in the weak-hearted fishes than in the plucky 

 small- mouth. 



AVe had opportunity on our trip to compare the habits 

 of the big-mouth and small-mouth bass very carefully. 

 The big-mouth bites nearer the surface and plays near 

 the bottom. The small-mouth bites nearer the bottom 

 and plays nearer the top. The big-mouth makes a 

 savage rush and splash in striking, while the small- 

 mouth is far more deliberate, cautious and gingerly in 

 its action. The big-mouth hunts the weeds when hooked 

 and sulks, while the small-mouth will come to the top 

 and try to shake out the hook, or to break away from it 

 by sheer strength. As to fighting qualities, much 

 depends on the depth and quality of the water. In 

 Phantom Lake the bass, big-mouths, ran small and did 

 not fight very well, though that is deep, cold spring 

 water. In the mill pond the big-mouths ran very fierce 

 and strong, but it was so weedy we could hardly tell 

 much about their fight. Over in Bsulah Lakp, off a 

 steep, rocky shore, we took a 'Ub. big-mouth, which out- 

 fought any fish killed on the whole trip, large or small- 

 mouth. It was probably 8 or 10 minutes before .1. B. H. 

 got him up out of the deep water higch enough to see 

 what he had on. We took the small-mouths under the 

 bridge in about 10 Ft, of water, and had the water been 

 deeper they would have made still more trouble. I 

 believe they fousht harder and longer than trout of the 

 same weight. IToder thf* circumstinc^is it was easy to 

 note everything very closely, and I am sure there was 

 a dilference in the fighting quality of individuals of the 

 same weight. I could notice this on the fly-rod especially, 

 because these ones could not hurry matterR, but pimply 

 had to hang and let the bass kill himself. When I struck 

 my last bass we all thought the rod was gone, for he 

 kept the tip under the bridge for what seemed a quarter 

 of an hour, and made so long and hard a fight that we 

 thought he must be much larger than the others. Yet 

 he was of just about the same size, as near as we could 

 judge, and was hooked like the others, square up through 

 the roof of the mouth, a fact due to our position directly 

 above the fish. 



We noticed another thing, which doubtless is not new, 

 though it never appeared so forcibly to us before, and 

 that is, a fish in the water looks only about half as big as 

 it really is. Distance does not lend enchautraent, if you 

 actually land your fish. Our b iss got bigger after we had 

 them out. The larg-^st small mouth we took weighed 

 ■tlbs., but judging by the apparent S'za of some of the 

 bass which followed him around after he was hooked, 

 there must have been several in that pool which weighed 

 over 5Ib3., and one or two that would have gone 6lb3. or 

 over. I don't believe that small-mouth bass ever get 

 much bigger than one old fellow we saw swim lazily out 

 from under the bridge several times. This fellow had a 

 torn, white spot on top of his upper lip, as though he had 

 been hurt or hooked before. We did not hook him, though 

 once or twice he came very near yielding to the tempta- 

 tion of the dragon-fly, and apparently experienced keen 

 regret at his own cowardice when he saw a bolder brother 

 swim ofi! with the coveted insect inside his mouth. For 

 my part, I never dropped a fly down in there on my lit- 

 tle fly-rod without the devout mental resnrvation that I 

 didn't want that big bass to take hold. He would have 

 smashed things sure. 



I presume m angler would use a bait-rod to catch a 

 bass if he could e^et the lure out to the fish in clear water 

 with a fly-rod. Unfortunately, this cannot often be done, 

 so we put up with the brutality of a short, stiff casting 

 rod, which, aside from its utility in the pretty art of bait- 

 casting, is a purely unsportsmanlike and butchering tool. 

 When you are casting frog for big-mouths, the fun is over 

 when the fish has made his rise. The best part of this 

 sort of fishing is the casting itself, I cannot leai-n that 

 casting from the free reel is much practiced in the East; 

 at least, I have never seen an Eastern angler come out 

 here who knew anything practical about our style of bait- 

 casting. Eastern rod makers for a long time seemed to 

 have no idea of the right sort of rod for it. Many a 

 "bass rod" has been sold in Chicago which was worthless 

 to its owner, though he paid a round price for it. A rod 

 maker must kno w the sport for which he is making rods, 

 or he is working in the dark, and does not know when he 

 has hit the idea. I have seen so many handsome, highly 

 finished -'bait-casting rods" which would not cast a bait 

 at all, though they would play a fish to perfection. There 

 is the difficulty of it. It is no sport to snub a fish up on 

 a short, stiff; x*od which gives him no chance, and yet 

 without such a rod in much of our fishing one could not 

 hook any fish to snub or otherwise. This is why we are 

 congratulating ourselves upon our interesting evening at 

 the bridge. We actually caught big fish on little rods, in 

 clear water, on a fair field and with no favor. 



The art of bait-casting from the free reel is much 

 harder to learn than that of flv-oasting. I shall never 

 forget the bitterness which sounded in the voice of our 

 friend, the Chief- witli-two-Stomachs, as he wiped his 

 brow and gazed intently at his frog, which had landed 

 directly behind the boat instead of in front of it, as he 

 had wished, "1 can do almost anything some," said he, 

 "but I can't do this any !" E. HouGH. 



Angling Talks. By George Dawson. P)Hce SO cents. Fly- 

 Rods and Fly-Tackle. By R. P. Wells. Price $^.50, Fly- 

 Fishing and Fly-Making for Trout. By J. H. Keene. 

 PHce $1.50, American Anglefs Book. By Tliad. Norris, 

 Prim, $0,50, 



IN NEW ENGLAND WATERS. 



Tub extremely high water in the New England lakes 

 and trout streams is being of some advantage to the trout 

 fishermen after all. Such a state of the water greatly 

 injured the early fly-fishing, it is true, but later there 

 are more encouraging reports. Just here it may be men- 

 tioned that good trout fishing is always to be looked for 

 soon after high water. This is especially true of moun- 

 tain streaais. Trout bite in such locations soon after 

 very high water has bpgun to subside, other conditions 

 being favorable, Mr. .1. W, Chickey, subscription man- 

 ager of the Boston /fi^raid, with a friend, has recently 

 had a turn at the brooks in the vicinity of North Conway, 

 N. H , with good results. They took some fine strings of 

 trout, and were happily surprised at the size of some they 

 caught; several running up to 13 and 14in. in length. 

 Tnere are also reports of better fly-fishing in the M^ine 

 lakes and ponds, now that the term of rain and high 

 water is over. 



Fish Commissioners Stilwell and Stanley, of Maine, 

 finished their planting of salmon for 1893 two or three 

 weefo ago. Last fall they succeeded in getting 175,000 

 lardlocked salmon eggs from (Irand Lake Stream and 

 Sebago. These were hatched at Enfield, and have lately 

 been distributed in Hopkin's and Flood's oondsin Otis; in 

 Tdmab Lake, in Washington county; Ashland, Frank- 

 lin and Trunk pond«, near Sorrento, and in Cherryfield 

 and Columbia Falls waters. They have also let out some 

 fish in Waterville and Ilartlaud waters. They have 

 liberated 175,000 s^a salmon fry in Sebago waters, besides 

 returning some 100,000 Sebago salmon fry to the same 

 waters, it being a law of the State that a large proportion 

 of the eggs taken Prom Sebago shall be returned, when 

 hatched, to the same waters. 



Mr. Stanley says that great injury is being done to the 

 brook fishing this year in that State, by the greed of the 

 marketmen and hotel men. The market men in several 

 towns have been selling these fish freely. In some cases 

 they, with the hotel men, have had fishermen hired to 

 take fish and have paid them wages. The Commissioners 

 think that this should not be. Citizens and visitors should 

 be allowed to fish for and catch what they can use for 

 their own eating, but should not be allowed "to catch and 

 ship to market. 



A true fish story is told of Commissioner Stanley this 

 soring, and it ia all the better for being perfectly true. 

 Early in the f ji'-ing he was one of the first at Weld Pond 

 to fish for landlocked salmon. There was still some ice 

 in the pond, but not strong enough to support a man. 

 Mr. S anley went out in a boat. He came to where be 

 desired to fish and threw an anchor out on the ice. He 

 fished there for some time, taking a number of fish. But 

 after a while the wind caused the anchor to loosen. Mr. 

 Stanley laid his rod on a cake of loose ice that was close 

 beside the boat, while he went to the bow to throw the 

 anchor again into more solid ice. Looking back he saw 

 his rod disappearing over the edge of the ice. He calcu- 

 lated that a big fish had hooked himself and was away 

 with his tackle. Soon he got sight of his rod again, but 

 immediately it disappeared under a floe of ice. He rigged 

 another rod and fished for about three hours. At the end 

 of that time he saw his rod again coming up the pond. 

 Evidently the fish had repented and was returning the 

 rigging. The rod came so near to the boat that Mr. Stan- 

 ley caught it and soon landed a 71b. salmon. Mr. Stanley 

 says it was a "spent" fish or it would have weighed 13lb 3. 

 at least. He liberated the penitent thief, and was thank- 

 ful to get back his rod and line. He took that day eight 

 salmon, weighing all the way from 'ii to 71bs. Five of 

 these were "spent" fish and returned to the pond at once. 

 Mr. Stanley says he has seen a number of "'spent" fish at 

 Weld Pond this season. This shows that many have 

 spawned there during the past season; a gratifying indi- 

 cation. 



Mr. Stanley adds the injunction that every reasonable 

 fisherman will return "spent" fish to the water. They 

 are worthless and a sportsman should be ashamed to re- 

 tain one. They are no worthy specimen of Maine sal- 

 mon. If they are returned, one year will make them 

 into salmon that any angler may justly ba proud of . 

 Such a course would tend to the good of the future of 

 angling in Maine, and w^ould not be much of a disap- 

 pointment to the honest angler. Would it not be a good 

 idea for Mr. Stanley to give the Forest ajjo Stream a 

 nice description of a "'spent" salmon or trout, in order 

 that the uainitiated may recognize such when taken. It 

 is easy to understand how an angler, not experienced in 

 the Maine waters, might not be aware that he had taken 

 a fish that was worthless from having bred only a few 

 months previous. 



The Commissioners say that more salmon have been 

 taken at Sebago this year than ever, though not as many 

 at Rangeley. Many small fish have bf-en taken at Sebago 

 weighing from 2 to SIbs. This is a good indication that 



the number of salmon is increasing: the small fish evi- 

 dently being young. They have great hopes of the sal- 

 mon in Maine, and not without excellent reasons. Oae 

 hundred salmon, weighing 1,850 lbs., are reported as 

 having been taken in the Bangor pool this year. As usual, 

 Mr. F. W. Ayer has taken the lion's share, he having 

 caught twenty-one fish, and his nearest competitor eleven. 

 This is not a bad record for a pool that was almost totally 

 exhausted for several years, till restocking and protec- 

 tion brought it up to present proportions. The more 

 wonder is that it is a pool that everybody fishes, from 

 the boy in a punt with an alder pole and a cotton line, up 

 to the rig that cost the angler hundreds of dollars— both 

 fishermen faring about alike. 



Still the salmon fishermen are returning from Canadian 

 waters with stories of rather poor success. Messrs. F. C. 



Coffin, T. J. Homer, J. W. Bailey and George L. Clark, 

 all of Boston, together with Prescott Clark, of Provi- 

 dence, left Boston early in June, and after visiting Que- 

 bec, proceeded to Riviere du Loup. From thence they 

 proceeded to the head-waters of the St. Francis. When 

 they i-eached Fall Brook great^expectations were dashed. 

 The brook was too much of a roaring torrent, and big 

 trout could not be taken. The St. John was followed as 

 far as Fredericton, and thence to Boston. The members 

 of the party are delighted with wilderness canoeing, but 

 the fishing was not a success. 



H, S. Kempton, of the Boston Herald editorial staff, 

 and S. Albert Wetmore, city editS'r of the same paper, 

 did the reporting of the Republican Presidential conven- 

 tion at Minneapolis. The time was too short for them to 

 retiu'h to Boston before doing tho Democratic convention 

 at Chicago, so they resolved to try the fishing in the cele- 

 brated Mlnnetonka. They had great success, and they 

 are distributing among their friends a photograph of 

 their success. They are holding a pole between them in 

 the picture on which are strung some twenty big bass. 

 An enormous pickerel shows off' his spotted sides in front 

 of the other fish. This fellow weighed over 13lbs. The 

 guide stands in the rear, and there is the lake and the 

 boats. The picture should have been a good one. and 

 worthy to have been entered in the photographic prize 

 competition of the FOREST AND Stream. But alas for the 

 skill of the Western expert photographer! The picture 

 was ovprtimed and not restrained, and is all too fiat. 



Mr. Rowe, Mr. F. A. Larkin and Mr. Sawyer, all of 

 Milwaukee, Wis., are in the East for a few days' blue- 

 fishing. They are in the hands of Capt. Ned Robinson, 

 of Cataumet, and it is calculated that they will have fine 

 sport, since bluefishing is good in that direction. 



Mr. Richard O. Harding, with George B. Appleton & 

 Co. , and secretary of the Massachusetts Fish and Game 

 Protective Association, has got back from salmon fishing. 

 He has been absent for three weeks, the guest of Mr, D. 

 H. Blanchard, at his fine river, the upper half of the 

 northeast branch of the St. Marguerite. Mr. Blanchard 

 owns the upper half of this river, and Mr. Walter M. 

 Brackett controls the lower half. It was Mr. Harding's 

 first trip to the Canadian salmon waters, and he enjoyed 

 it much, as who could help enjoying a trip of that 

 sort, under the patronage of so genial a soul as Mr. 

 Blanchard. But alas! the salmon fishing was very 

 nearly a failure. The water was remarkably high and 

 the river white in all of the rapids. It rained every day 

 for eight days during Mr. Harding's stay, and it not 

 only rained, but it poured. Not a salmon was taken 

 till just before Mr. Harding was obliged to leave. 

 Then Mr. Blanchard hooked a big one in the pool 

 below camp, and the fellow took them down river nearly 

 a mile before he could be subdued. Mr. Harding had the 

 good fortune to be in the canoe at the time, though he 

 did not have hold of the fish. He says that the working 

 of that magnificent fish was well worth the trip. He 

 was hooked some thirty-five minutes before he was 

 brought to the gaff. The fish weighed 37lbs. Mr. 

 Blanchard got another one that weighed 121bs. before 

 Mr. Harding carae away, and that was all the result of 

 three weeks' outing with over two weeks on the stream. 

 Mr, Harding got no salmon. When he came away Mr. 

 Walter Brackett had taken no salmon, though his son 

 Arthur had taken one 241b. fish. Later the fishing will 

 doubtless be better, since the "fresh run" of salmon had 

 just begun when Mr. Harding came out. The small sal- 

 mon of Mr. Blanchard's was evidently one of the "fresh 

 run," while the big fish had been in the fresh water for 

 some time. The St. Marguerite Club, which controls 

 the northwest branch of the river, had taken but twelve 

 salmon, the result of five rods for nearly two weeks. 



Special. 



A TOUGH SCULPIN. 



I am Sir Blob; 



I enter and rob 

 The nesti of the spawning salmon. 



I down the fry 



And wink my eye 

 At the law's ijrotective gammon. 



BoiLiNa springs would not be selected, as a rule, for 

 fishculcural operations: but occasionally tough-skinned 

 fishes like the miller's thumb or blob hover around the 

 edges of the hot-water areas in search of their prey. 

 Even the blob, however, has a limit of endurance and 

 falls a victim to heat stroke. Dr. O, P. Rex, 921 Chest- 

 nut street, Philadelphia, was the owner of such a rash 

 blob which was cast up by the Boiling Spring in Benton 

 county, Arkansas. Not recognizing the fish he sent it to 

 the LT-. S. Fish Commission for identification, and it was 

 found to be one of the varieties of Cottifi bairdi, the 

 ub quitous miller's thumb or blob,a very near relative of the 

 one shown in our illustration accompanying these notes. 



The blob is a fresh- water sculpin, and if it has any good 

 points they were long since forgotten. Represented by 

 numerous varieties and ranging from Arctic regions 

 across the continent and southward to Alabama, occupy- 

 ing besides other waters the territory inhabited by salmon 

 and trout, it is one of the most inveterate and destructive 

 of the enemies of eggs and young fish. The blob grows 

 to a length of about 6 in., but its capacity for destroying 

 fry is not to be measured by its size. Multiply his length 

 by his activity, his povver of forcing his way into rock 

 crevices, his superb digestion, insatiable appetite and 

 tough armor, and you will more readily appreciate his 

 approval of the ancient policy of planting tender trout 

 fry in his domain. He lies in the streams and laughs a 

 broad and generous laugh, and looks to it that the vic- 

 tims of misplaced confidence are planted sure enough, 



THE LTBIQUITOUS BLOB. 



